Gerri de la Sal
Gerri de la Sal
The village of Gerri de la Sal is the administrative centre of the municipality of Baix Pallars. The earliest records of the village date from the 10th century, when Gerri was a small walled settlement on the right bank of the Noguera Pallaresa, structured around Plaça de Sant Feliu. Around the 13th century, the village expanded դեպի the upper part, around the Torre de la Presó, and it was not until the 16th century that the Raval del Roser, to the north of the village, and the Raval de Sant Sebastià, at the southern end, began to take shape.
Its old streets are full of architectural traces that speak of its past: Plaça de Sant Feliu (where the former church of Sant Feliu once stood before being moved to Carrer Sant Antoni; formerly a meeting point for local residents when they came down to market on Saturdays, and today the place where the Ball de la Morisca can be seen on the Sunday of the Festa Major); the bridge of Romanesque origin (which crosses the Noguera Pallaresa and gives access to the monastery of Gerri); Plaça del Mercadal (the square crossed by the old royal road and home to the Alfolí de la Sal); and the Torre de la Presó (a typical 13th-century village fortification). The history of Gerri de la Sal has always been closely linked to the monastery of Santa Maria de Gerri, and much of its wealth came from the exploitation of the saltwater spring that emerges in the soils of the Raval del Roser, probably since the Bronze Age, according to the latest studies.